THE IVORIAN STATE AND PRE-TRIAL DETENTION
Crossed perspectives on the internationalisation of penal reforms
Pre-trial detention in Côte d'Ivoire is a matter of debate. When it becomes unjustified and systematic, leading to overcrowding and degrading treatment, it becomes intolerable. Penal reforms have been undertaken but have not succeeded in curbing this situation. Moreover, they reveal the difficulties in thinking about the transformation of the prison and judicial system. The interest in the tension between the lack of understanding of the procedures by the people concerned and the logic of standardisation nevertheless allows us to outline a methodological reflection in order to understand in a renewed way the dynamics of confinement and the State. This book was born out of a desire to cross perspectives. It examines the reform processes at work in Côte d'Ivoire and in the countries of the sub-Saharan region in order to bring to light the 'unthought' of the internationalisation of penal reform in this region.
Co-edited by Marie-Julie Bernard and Bénédicte Fischer of the CERDAP², the book "L'État ivoirien à l'épreuve de la détention préventive" (The Ivorian State and the test of preventive detention) brings together different voices - academics as well as human rights defenders from ACAT-CI or FIACAT - to highlight the issues at stake in the penal reforms and in the rights of detainees in the Ivory Coast and, more generally, in Sub-Saharan Africa.
It echoes the study "Presumed innocent? Study on preventive detention in Côte d'Ivoire", co-authored by CERDAP², FIACAT and ACAT-CI and published in 2020 as part of the implementation of the project to combat unjustified preventive detention supported by the European delegation in Côte d'Ivoire conducted since 2014.
FIACAT, ACAT-CI and CERDAP² would particularly like to thank the Ivorian authorities and all those who took part in this work.
Contacts presse :
- FIACAT – Lionel Grassy, l.grassy@fiacat.org +32 470 92 85 10
- ACAT-CI – Wenceslas Assohou, wenceslasassohou@gmail.com +225 07 65 65 28